Steuart Martens Fired, 'The Apprentice' Reveals Finalists

November 26, 2010 07:02:33 GMT

The 27-year-old Washington DC native was fired one episode before the live finale for failing to back up his team in a sale task.

On Thanksgiving night, "The Apprentice" aired the last episode before the live December finale, and revealed the top 3 contestants of season 10. Steuart Martens has become the 12th candidate fired from the competition, leaving Clint Robertson, Liza Mucheru-Wisner and Brandy Kuentzel in the run.

The four remaining contestants were challenged to market products by Isaac Mizrahi, and Donald Trump told them to divide by sex. Brandy and Liza took the side of Fortitude while the men teamed up for Octane. They were free to pick a product to be sold at QVC and must earn the biggest profit through careful calculation.

The women chose to sell watches while the other team chose purses. In the boardroom, Mizrahi told Mr. Trump that Octane gave too big a price tag to the purse while Fortitude under-priced the watch. When the result was revealed, Fortitude took bigger profit since they sold more products. The women sold 77 watches for a profit of $2,998.38 while the men sold only 25 handbags for a profit of $2,174.25.

Clint and Steuart were consequently judged. The former, who took the lead as project manager, said he is a tough businessman like Mr. Trump and therefore should stay in the competition. The latter blasted his teammate for lacking "metropolitan savvy", adding the major decisions in the last task were made by Clint.

Mr. Trump called it a tough decision but he fired Steuart in the end due to credentials. He reasoned Clint has more CEO charisma than Steuart and also more experience in the business which can lead him to better future.

"It's never fun to lose but I defended myself as best I could in the boardroom by keeping my integrity intact," Steuart said after elimination. "I don't believe that Mr. Trump made the right decision, but it's not up to me."